Trinidad and Tobago footballers want 'harsh measures' to stem racism

NATIONAL FOOTBALLERS, past and present, are calling on international football bodies to choose humanity over economics to address racism in sport.

Current Trinidad and Tobago players, Marvin Phillip (goalkeeper) and Alvin Jones (right-back), discussed recent brutal fan racist attacks, from the CONCACAF Gold Cup match versus Mexico in July, which was played in Texas, USA.

Bottles, debris as well as discriminatory and racist slurs were hurled at the TT players at the end of the match, which ended in a goalless draw. The game had to be stopped twice because of discriminatory slurs.

In June, Mexico was sanctioned by FIFA and ordered to play their next two official home games without fans as a result of the repeated discriminatory slurs by fans at matches.

Alvin Jones said: “The threats were some of the worst and most frightening things I have had to go through. My family has been threatened. It’s hard to think about ever playing against Mexico again.”

This was one of the major issues to arise from a virtual roundtable on Racism in Sport and launch of the Pass the Ball Challenge hosted by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) in collaboration with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) on Wednesday.

The footballers candidly and bravely shared their experiences with racism over the years. They acknowledged that, while there are campaigns and access to a three-step protocol to deal with racism and discrimination in the game, it is evident that a greater humanitarian approach is required to combat this issue and its devastating impact on an individual’s mental health.

Only one of the three steps were implemented at the TT versus Mexico match. The steps are – stop the match, suspend the match and abandon the match.

One of the panellists, ex-national captain Kenwyne Jones contextualised this inequity by stating, “Sporting bodies have been placing economics at the top of the ladder and focusing less on the humanity of the sport.

"Instead, what prevailed was ascribing a different set of standards based on the ranking and the economic return of a country such as Mexico.”

The former TT striker added that “current disciplinary actions such as fines are not working. We need harsher measures like expelling a team for one year or two to address perpetrators of racism in sport”.

While promoting the roundtable discussion, EOC chairman, Ian Roach echoed similar sentiments.

“(The footballers) are involved in entertaining you but we need to treat them with the dignity and respect that they deserve as human beings. He who controls the purse, controls the say and until (the football bodies) are able to feel the consequences of those actions in a severe way, it (racism) will continue to manifest itself as obvious as it is.”

Alvin Jones, who was one of the main targets of racist attacks during and after the Mexico game, said it affected him mentally.

“The abuse on the field continued on social media as I received death threats from Mexico fans. It a challenge dealing with racism on the field but I had to regain my mental focus to prepare for other (forthcoming) games. To this day, if I post on social media, I still receive negative messages from Mexican fans and every time I hear a notification, I think that it a hate-message.”

Dr. Krystal-Jane Verasammy, EOC commissioner and a counselling psychologist, said, “What Alvin Jones described were triggers and it shows that this was a traumatic experience. There are differing responses to these experiences based on personality traits and our footballing bodies should provide mental health support to players.”

The panellists, which also included TT women's team player Naomie Guerra, agreed that the solution will not come overnight and there must be mechanisms in place to prepare up-and-coming sports men and women for this type of negative behaviour and resulting mental trauma. The event was hosted by sports reporter Caston Cupid.